Like so many athletic traditions at Boston
College, the adoption of the school colors started with the students.
In the mid-1880's, BC students were passionate for their teams, but had
no way of visually proclaiming where their loyalties lay.

As a story in The Heights on those early years
noted, "A college man going to the games had no striped tie to wear.
Nor was there any armband of any significant color that might let the wide
world know that the `fair' rooters, screeching so loudly at anything at
all, were followers of the Boston College team."

A committee of students, led by the school-spirited
T.J. Hurley (class of 1885 and composer of "Alma Mater" and "For Boston"),
was appointed to determine which hue would best represent BC. After
considering the colors of rival Jesuit institutions - Holy Cross's purple,
Fordham's maroon, Georgetown's blue and gray - the committee selected two
Papal colors: maroon and gold. The student body unanimously approved.

The first use of the Boston College colors
was in a banner sewn by women attending the New England Conservatory of
Music, which was located near BC at that time - on James Street in the
South End. The banner flew at every college event until its sudden
and mysterious disappearance. But the Maroon and Gold continues as
the rallying symbol for Boston College rooters everywhere.